Expat Holidays: Wherever You Are

Whichever holidays you celebrate and wherever you are this festive season, with family in your own country, or somewhere far away in a foreign country, I hope you will be happy and have fun. Last year I was in Moldova, roasting two Moldovan village geese for Christmas dinner. (Not something I’d ever expected to be saying: I roasted two Moldovan village geese.) We invited expat friends whose family live in New Zealand, and the four of us had a lovely meal.

This year we are in the US and I’m cooking a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings and we’ll have lots of family around the table. As a Dutch person I did not grow up with the tradition of stuffing birds, but when I married an American I married a lot of foreign culture as well, so I learned. Love will do that for you.

Whenever I cook a big turkey, I think of my mother’s comment, years ago when she visited us in the US for Christmas. She watched me wrestling with a monster turkey and shook her head in consternation. “Why don’t you make it easy on yourself and just cut it up and roast the parts?” she said with Dutch common sense.

Well, yes, but . . .

Tradition, culture — it can be puzzling.

Wishing you Happy Holidays, Peace and Joy

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Did you ever experience a bit of puzzling tradition celebrating holidays in foreign climes?

Hope you had a lovely Christmas. It’s a normal working day here in Fethiye but we manage to make our own stress-free fun. 🙂 The weather was amazing, as was yesterday, so it’s been time spent on the beach, too. Happy New Year to you and look forward to your posts in 2013.
Julia

Seasons greetings, Miss Footloose. I personally don’t celebrate Christmas but have always lived in countries where it’s a public holiday. So I treasure being on holiday on December 25th — and love that for the past few years in Hong Kong, I’ve found friends to go hiking with on that day. 🙂

Actually we are cooking a Finnish Goose this Christmas
I am now wondering about your mothers chosen words of wisdom
Howver we wish to add stuffing in the cavity so I gather we will roast it
A 6.5 Kilo goose from a local farm here in Finland
Yum Yum!

Most Riveting Tales

Writing as Karen van der Zee I have dreamed up over 30 romance novels published by Harlequin Books and other publishers. Visit my website at www.karenvanderzee.com

My name is Miss Footloose (aka Karen van der Zee)

I'm an expatriate writer with lots of stories to tell. I've seen my Palestinian butcher's bedroom, dined on fertility sausage in Kenya, and almost landed in jail in Uganda. I now live in a village in France but I'm not remodeling an old farmhouse and don't drink wine from my own grapes.